What Is The Theme Of Popularity By Adam Bagdasarian

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Most assume that adolescence is one of the easiest times in people's lives, but that could not be further from the truth. "Popularity" by Adam Bagdasarian is about a boy who struggles with fitting in, and wants nothing more than to be popular. "Hanging Fire" by Audre Lorde is a short story written in verse about a girl who is struggling with adolescent pressures. The girl struggles with insecurities about her physical appearance, social skills, and loneliness. The short story "Going Steady" by Adam Bagdasarian is about a boy who struggles to admit his true feelings while in an adolescent relationship. No one emerges from the battle of adolescence unscathed. Some of these wounds can be caused by pressures to fit in and insecurities.
There are lots of pressures that peak during adolescence. Everyone at the narrator's school knew that, "[i]t [was] a sad fact of life that the clothes a child wears and how he wears them often determine his rank in school society" (30 Bagdasarian). The clothes students wear can …show more content…

The speaker is talking about some of her insecurities when she says, "how come my knees are / always so ashy" (Lorde 6,7). The speaker is upset by the fact that her knees are ashy. Ashy knees is only one of the many insecurities about her physical appearance that she lists. In the second stanza, the speaker talks about how she has to "learn how to dance / in time for the next party" (Lorde, lines 12,13). She has to be able to dance for the next party in order to not be embarrassed. The speaker feels insecure of her dance moves and does not want to be judged by her peers. At the end of each stanza the speaker repeats the lines, "and momma’s in the bedroom / with the door closed" (Lorde, lines 10,11, 22,23 34,35). The speaker's mother is not there for her to talk to about her feelings. The speaker is dealing with insecurities about her physical appearance and her social skills, but has no one to confide in about